NOTE: Other translations exist, such as:Great trees grow from the smallest shoots;a terraced garden, from a pile of earth,and a journey of a thousand milesbegins by taking the initial step.http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/taote-v3.html http://www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/ttcstan3.html

To produce things and to rear them,To produce, but not to take possession of them,To act, but not to rely on one's own ability,To lead them, but not to master them -This is called profound and secret virtue.

Let there be a small country with few people . . .Though neighboring communities overlook one another and the crowing of cocks and barking of dogs can be heard,Yet the people there may grow old and die without ever visiting one another.

Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness.

Favor and disgrace are like fear. Favor is in a higher place, and disgrace in a lower place. When you win them you are like being in fear, and when you lose them you are also like being in fear. So favor and disgrace are like fear.

Of the best rulers, The people only know that they exist; the next best they love and praise the next they fear; and the next they revile. When they do not command the people's faith, some will lose faith in them, and then they resort to oaths! But of the best when their task is accomplished, their work done, the people all remark, We have done it ourselves.